Determination of an Acclimation Period for Swine in Biomedical Research.

Swine are widely used models in biomedical research due to their physiologic and anatomic similarities to humans. During transport from vendors to research facilities, pigs are subject to a number of stressors, including environmental, social, and stress as a result of deprivation from food and water. As stress can have a number of adverse psychologic and physiologic effects, an acclimation period, defined as the period of time that an animal has to adjust and stabilize in a new environment, is recommended. The literature indicates that swine should be conditioned to their new facility for 5 to 7 d prior to undergoing survival surgery; however, to date, there is no published scientific evidence to support this or any specific acclimation period for swine. To investigate whether a certain length acclimation period leads to decreased stress in swine, we measured 2 stress biomarkers, cortisol and chromogranin A (CgA), from the saliva of 12 naive Yorkshire swine (n = 6 males and 6 females) arriving at our facility for use in research protocols. Noninvasive saliva collection was performed on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 after arrival from the vendor (representing different acclimation periods). We hypothesized that longer acclimation periods would result in reduced levels of both cortisol and CgA, indicating reduced stress. Our data revealed that there was no statistical difference in cortisol levels over time (P = 0.8200), nor between the sexes (P = 0.9886) or individual animals (P = 0.6280). CgA, similarly to cortisol, showed no overall effect of time (P = 0.2017) or sex (P = 0.6598). For this analyte, individual animal was significant (P < 0.0001), which suggests high interanimal variation. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease (P = 0.0077) in salivary CgA from day 1 compared with day 14, suggesting that swine may benefit from an acclimation period of at least 14 d.

Family-Centric Applied Behavior Analysis Promotes Sustained Treatment Utilization and Attainment of Patient Goals.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:  Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication difficulties and restricted repetitive behaviors or interests. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has been shown to significantly improve outcomes for individuals on the autism spectrum. However, challenges regarding access, cost, and provider shortages remain obstacles to treatment delivery. To this end, parents were trained as parent behavior technicians (pBTs), improving access to ABA, and empowering parents to provide ABA treatment in their own homes. We hypothesized that patients diagnosed with severe ASD would achieve the largest gains in overall success rates toward skill acquisition in comparison to patients diagnosed with mild or moderate ASD. Our secondary hypothesis was that patients with comprehensive treatment plans (>25-40 hours/week) would show greater gains in skill acquisition than those with focused treatment plans (less than or equal to 25 hours/week).  Methods: This longitudinal, retrospective chart review evaluated data from 243 patients aged two to 18 years who received at least three months of ABA within our pBT treatment delivery model. Patients were stratified by utilization of prescribed ABA treatment, age, ASD severity (per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition), and treatment plan type (comprehensive vs. focused). Patient outcomes were assessed by examining success rates in acquiring skills, both overall and in specific focus areas (communication, emotional regulation, executive functioning, and social skills). RESULTS: Patients receiving treatment within the pBT model demonstrated significant progress in skill acquisition both overall and within specific focus areas, regardless of cohort stratification. Patients with severe ASD showed greater overall skill acquisition gains than those with mild or moderate ASD. In addition, patients with comprehensive treatment plans showed significantly greater gains than those with focused treatment plans. CONCLUSION: The pBT model achieved both sustained levels of high treatment utilization and progress toward patient goals. Patients showed significant gains in success rates of skill acquisition both overall and in specific focus areas, regardless of their level of treatment utilization. This study reveals that our pBT model of ABA treatment delivery leads to consistent improvements in communication, emotional regulation, executive functioning, and social skills across patients on the autism spectrum, particularly for those with more severe symptoms and those following comprehensive treatment plans.

Family-Centric Applied Behavior Analysis Facilitates Improved Treatment Utilization and Outcomes.

Background/Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by lifelong impacts on functional social and daily living skills, and restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRBs). Applied behavior analysis (ABA), the gold-standard treatment for ASD, has been extensively validated. ABA access is hindered by limited availability of qualified professionals and logistical and financial barriers. Scientifically validated, parent-led ABA can fill the accessibility gap by overcoming treatment barriers. This retrospective cohort study examines how our ABA treatment model, utilizing parent behavior technicians (pBTs) to deliver ABA, impacts adaptive behaviors and interfering behaviors (IBs) in a cohort of children on the autism spectrum with varying ASD severity levels, and with or without clinically significant IBs. Methods: Clinical outcomes of 36 patients ages 3-15 years were assessed using longitudinal changes in Vineland-3 after 3+ months of pBT-delivered ABA treatment. Results: Within the pBT model, our patients demonstrated clinically significant improvements in Vineland-3 Composite, domain, and subdomain scores, and utilization was higher in severe ASD. pBTs utilized more prescribed ABA when children initiated treatment with clinically significant IBs, and these children also showed greater gains in their Composite scores. Study limitations include sample size, inter-rater reliability, potential assessment metric bias and schedule variability, and confounding intrinsic or extrinsic factors. Conclusion: Overall, our pBT model facilitated high treatment utilization and showed robust effectiveness, achieving improved adaptive behaviors and reduced IBs when compared to conventional ABA delivery. The pBT model is a strong contender to fill the widening treatment accessibility gap and represents a powerful tool for addressing systemic problems in ABA treatment delivery.